News

I went to Mali, West Africa, in the summer of ‘01 with my parents and my brother. On our first night in the country, my mom and I were struggling with jet lag and couldn’t sleep, so we got out some animal crackers and started playing a game in the middle of the night. Now, whenever we take an overseas trip, we make sure to pack the animal crackers.

Rachel Kerr

20

Bibles International

Perhaps the part where we go up on the church stage to sing a Finnish kid’s song as family.  None of us are blessed or gifted in the music department.  We weren’t exactly the Von Trapp family!

Karin Rukala Sicoli

32

Finland

When I was 12, I had to sing a solo during the Christmas play and I got nervous so I froze up and forgot all the words...*cough*

Rebecca Smith

15

Londrina, Parana-Brazil

  We went to a camp in Curitiba for teens, and my dad (the pastor) asked us to give a testimony. I was on my way up, and tripped! I had to hold onto the pulpit so I wouldn’t fall flat on my face!

Rachel Smith

16

Londrina, Brazil

I don’t know I have so many not so much with the language just like I was in the grocery store the other day and ran to get something and was running back and I slipped on some water and ALMOST fell.

Abigail M. Jewell

16

Sorocaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil

I misspelled the word “dog” in front of the whole kindergarten

graduation ceremony. This was in New York State, when on furlough. I was chosen because I was a good speller, so I wrote “bog” instead of dog.

Joshua Whitman

27

Italy

When we came back to visit on furlough, we were in such a habit of speaking French that we would start a sentence in English, and finish it in French.  This was very funny at times, all depending on who you were talking to.

Jon Price

31

USA (Indiana) ?

Trying to identify supporting churches to our kids. You always tend to remember the disasters. Where our projector bulb burnt out, and we discovered that the spare was broken. Where lightening hit the transformer and the entire AM services were conducted in the dark, with no electricity (no AC, no organ, no PA). Where we stayed in the prophets chamber (a small “motel room” in the Office wing of the church) and Mom burned the bacon for breakfast and the entire church smelled like burnt bacon. This list goes on.

David Boyd

49

The Netherlands

I remember at a field council, we had just had two or three new missionary families come at about the same time, and this was their first time with us at field council.  As MKs usually do during field council, a bunch of us MKs were playing outside, and the adults (who had finished their business, or maybe had not yet started it) were inside chatting.  One of the new MK boys was being a brat (yep, MKs can be brats too!), and I finally decided to go tattle to his dad.  But I could have died of embarrassment when the man that I thought was his dad said, “That’s not my son!”  Oops—I got confused between the new families and went to the WRONG DAD!!  I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was so embarrassed I ran outside and sobbed!

Anna Beth Wivell

25

Australia

In Venezuela people greet each other with a kiss on the cheek. It was embarrassing to go up to people in America and try to do the same thing I did in Venezuela, people would look very strangely at me, then I would remember I was in the US.

Sarah Darling

20

Venezuela

I was visiting a church and the teacher was passing out Spanish tracts. A girl asked what it said and so the teacher started translating it. She didn’t know much Spanish and so when she got stumped on a word, I gave her the pronunciation and the translation. She looked at me and said, “You’re not so and so’s granddaughter from IN are you!? You’re the MK from Peru! I can’t believe I read my horrible Spanish in front of you!”

Hannah Stilwell

16

Peru

My brother and I had a tutor who was very old but smart lady. She had two grown sons who were about mid-thirties to early forties. When I would read my monotone voice would put her to sleep and many times she would lay right on my books. Usually while she slept I would watch one of her sons get the newspaper and then he would go to the curb of the street where he had an old Jeep parked on blocks. He would get in the Jeep, put his seat belt on and read the paper. Then when he was finished he would get out the Jeep and go back inside. I never understood why he put the seat belt on seeing that there were no wheels on the Jeep.

Daniel Darling

26

Venezuela

When we first got back to the U.S. after our first five years on the field I did not know how to flush the toilet, and I burnt my hands because in Brazil we do not have hot water. I did not know that in the U.S. there is hot water in the sinks.

Leah Ronk

20

Brazil

In Puerto Rico, people kiss each other on the cheek when they greet each other. When we came home one time when I was a teenager, I walked into youth group and greeted several old friends whom I hadn’t seen in about four years, with a kiss on their cheek. It wasn’t until I saw some of their faces in reaction to my greeting, that I realized that my greeting was inappropriate and not done there in Michigan. I was mortified thinking that I had just branded myself  “Geek” in the first 5 minutes of being in the youth group. :o)

Michelle (Stinedurf) Williams

36

Puerto Rico

Sleep-walking at other people’s house.

Philip Harris

37

C.A.R.

People don’t realize that Mks grow up.  One lady offered my mom a nursery for us.  My sister and I were 12 & 16 years old by then.

Lisa (Richter) Armstrong

35

Alaska (as MK)

I would have to say it was the time I forgot I was in the States and gave an old acquaintance the beginnings of a hug. He looked VERY uncomfortable, to say the least, but in Brazil, that's how we would have greeted someone we hadn't seen in over 4 years.

Mark Swedberg

43

Brazil

When I was entering 9^th grade (13 yr. old) we came back to the states.  A lady from our church was kind to us and offered to give us all hair cuts.  We didn’t know the styles so we were very grateful.  She cut my hair short and gave me large curls.  A few weeks into our stay, we soon learned everyone my age had long, tight curls…Thanks!

Victoria Lynn (Elmer) Meerman

31

C.A.R.

In college two of my friends and I went to Target and as we were checking out, I asked one of them what the term was for writing you check over the amount... without blinking my friend said: That's called 'boofing' your check... I fell for it... The cashier looked at me like I had two heads and I just kept saying that would like to 'boof' my check over and over.

Daniel Boyd

26

The Netherlands

One Sunday evening a friend and I got to church early to practice a duet we were going to sing.  When we got there the church was still locked, so we climbed the wall and went around to get through the back entrance, disturbing a mother cat and her litter on the way.  By the time we got in through the back door we realized that we were black with fleas!  We had to strip down and pick them off.  We were covered!  As we were standing there in our underwear, the church cleaning lady and member of the congregation, arrived and opened up the church.  There we were hopping around, covered with fleas in our underwear!

Bill Griffin Jr.

58

Brazil

I went with my dad to a meeting and accidentally walked into the men’s restroom.  Fortunately no one beside our family and the pastor was in the building.

Karis Giegerich

15

No. America

When I ran into a door so hard it unlocked.

David Giegerich

8

No. America

Coming back to the States some of my most embarrassing moments were trying to figure out what I wanted to say in English and mixing it with Portuguese

Joy Thompson

18

B.I. (Brazil for 15 years)

Maybe chasing bats through our mission house with a tennis raquet.  The house was arranged in such a way that hallways totally surrounded the kitchen in the center of the house.  The bat, therefore, could keep flying round and round through the house.  Once he established that pattern, we could wait for him to come around again through the narrow hallway.  The bat’s inner radar helped him avoid the tennis raquet time after time, but we finally got him!

Larry Fogle

56

C.A.R.

Funniest moment was at a tri-annual conference in the summer one year, we found the hallway where many of the men hung their suit coats while they were in meetings. We took various name tags that were pinned on the jackets and swapped them with other jackets. Then we sat back and watched as the "Who has my name tag" games began. The church promptly scheduled someone to organize events for the children who were there to keep the busy during the day. 

Doug Holtz

37

CBF

I would have to say when I ate a robin egg.  We were on furlough and my dad went walking.  He picked up a robin egg to show me because I had never seen one.  He put it by my breakfast plate, to show me when I came out of my room.  I thought it was a chocolate egg left over from Easter.  I ate it.  Oh man, it was so nasty.

Christopher Frey

16

Lima, Peru

After moving to Cambodia and learning the new language, I was bargaining for something at the market. The seller was emphatically trying to make me understand the price while I stubbornly held my ground saying that I would not pay such an exorbitant price. Eventually I realized that I had gotten my vocabulary mixed up and was demanding to pay a higher price than she was offering to sell it for.  I sheepishly said, "thank you" and walked away. I couldn't face her again for days.

Hadessah Broeckert

22

C.A.R., Cambodia

When we arrived at each church- we had a standing challenge. The challenge was to see who could locate the bathroom first. Some churches have hidden bathrooms.

Stephanie Jingst

20

US/EBI

When I came to college I had to take the freshman English proficiency test. After reading the first question, I had to ask the girl sitting next to me, what a noun was. Needless to say I failed that test. I did not know that there was a difference in spelling of but or butt

Mark Boyd

23

The Netherlands

  I don't think I really have an embarrassing MK experience, but there are many funny ones, like when other people here in the States are speaking Spanish and don't know that I know it, and then you surprise them when you let them know that you know Spanish too.

Sarah Lossing

24

Trujillo, Peru and

Cuenca, Ecuador

People here often think that we teenage boys are older than we really are.  Once at a fellowship of our region’s churches, I was talking with another MK.  A girl walked up to us and asked me, "Sir, is he your son?"  By the way, my friend is only four years younger than I am!   

Daniel Lossing

18

Peru

Once when I was coming back from the store with my mom, one of my friends met me outside our apartment building and asked if a wanted to go skating with her. So I told her (or at least, I thought I told her), "OK, but I have to change my clothes first." She looked at me strangely and said, "Um, never mind. Maybe some other day," and ran off. When we got inside, I asked Mom if I had said something wrong. It turns out that instead of saying the word for "clothes" I said the word for "father!" I'd told her

I needed to go change my father before I could go skating with her!

Anne Cottle

17

Irkutsk, Russia